Doping-IOC strips Uzbek wrestler of Olympic bronze

BERLIN (Reuters) - Uzbek wrestler Soslan Tigiev has been stripped of the bronze medal he won at this year’s London Olympics after testing positive for a banned substance, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday.

Tigiev, who was third in the men’s freestyle 74kg category, tested positive for methylhexaneamine after his fight on August 10 against Hungary’s Gabor Hatos who will now be awarded the bronze medal.

“Tigiev is disqualified from the men’s 74kg freestyle wrestling event, where he placed third, is excluded from the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 and shall have his medal, diploma and medalist pin in the above-noted event withdrawn,” the IOC said in a statement.

Tigiev became the second athlete from the London Olympics to be stripped of a medal because of a doping violation.

Belarussian Nadezhda Ostapchuk had her gold in the women’s shot put taken back after testing positive for the steroid metenolone. Valerie Adams of New Zealand was upgraded to gold.

Twelve athletes were excluded or left the Games after testing positive for banned drugs or admitting to it.

They include U.S. judoka Nick Delpopolo, who tested positive for marijuana which he blamed on unwittingly eating a hash brownie, as well as Russian cyclist Victoria Baranova and Colombian runner Diego Palomeque Echevarria, who both tested positive for testosterone.